Ex-councillor admits charity fraud charges

15 March 2006

Ted Jeory

A FORMER Tower Hamlets councillor and his younger brother have admitted pilfering £30,000 from a council-backed East End children's programme.

Nasir Uddin, ex-Labour councillor for the St Dunstan's and Stepney ward, and his younger brother, Ain Uddin, dramatically changed their pleas today (Weds) at Southwark Crown Court in a fraud trial also involving Kumar Murshid, a serving member of Tower Hamlets council and a former top advisor to London Mayor Ken Livingstone.

Nasir Uddin, 33, now of Cotswold Gardens, East Ham, admitted taking £15,694 for personal gain from the Stepney-based Youth Action Scheme four years ago.

He also admitted illegally transferring £10,000 from the scheme to Deshbangla TV, a Bow-based Bangladeshi media and training company.

He also pleaded guilty to stealing £4,262 from Youth Action Scheme for the benefit of his brother, Ain, 32, of East India Dock Road.

Ain Uddin admitted stealing a further £5,985 from the scheme between 2000 and 2002, the court heard.

The brothers were bailed until sentencing, expected in three weeks.

On Tuesday, Labour's Limehouse ward councillor Kumar Murshid, 50, of Goodhart Place, denied other theft charges totalling almost £240,000, including £40,000 from the Youth Action Scheme.

Also sitting beside Murshid and the Uddins in the dock were Shalim Khan and David Joseph.

All three have denied all charges that include theft, conspiracy to defraud and failing to file company accounts.

The trial of Murshid, Joseph, 39, and Khan, 29, is set to start on Monday.

Joseph, of Merlin Close, Chafford Hundred, Grays, Essex, denies eight charges of theft totalling £8,500 between 1 February 2001 and 1 May, 2003.

Khan, of Vaughan Way, Wapping, denies two counts of conspiracy to defraud between 30 May 2001 and 31 January 2002.